


Partners

by mythicait



Series: Niloy Oneshots [1]
Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Bandit camp, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Kinda, Love Confessions, in their own way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2019-10-04
Packaged: 2020-11-23 05:54:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20887193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mythicait/pseuds/mythicait
Summary: Tumblr prompt: Aloy clears out a bandit camp and finds a captured and injured NilFor my ever wonderful gvsilverfox





	1. Chapter 1

Aloy found herself somewhat… disappointed by this group of bandits.

Maybe she had just become used to the Shadow Carja? They tended to have better weapons and more fortifications, so bandits could just be easier now. It had been a long time since she’d hunted bandits.

Not since Nil.

Not since her so-called partner had tried to face off with her in some grand battle. She had thought she knew him by then, knew how his strange mind thought and how they worked together, but he surprised her. She didn’t know why - Aloy should have expected something like that from him after his lamenting on the lack of bandits.

Maybe it was her lack of a partner, and not the bandits’ skill, that had brought on this unease. She didn’t want to know why that bothered her, had done her best to avoid even thinking of Nil lately.

Aloy didn’t want to know how else he had chosen to deal with the lessened need for bandit hunters. Whether he had thrown himself into a larger battle than he could handle and gotten himself - killed. Or, much worse, whether he had decided to turn that bloodlust on others less deserving of it. If he had done that, she would likely have to be the one hunting him.

Shoving down the pain that lanced through her at that thought, Aloy strung another arrow. She was down to three bandits and - she checked her focus - three captives. Crouching in the long grass, she took out the lookout on this side of the camp. She wasn’t quite as concerned about stealth now that she had so few targets left, but it was habit.

_Don’t you get bored, huntress? Wouldn’t you rather see the whites of their eyes as you spill the blood from their veins? Feel the blood pump in your own veins as you face death like the warrior you are?_

Laughing at the words he had murmured to her during their last bandit camp, Aloy slung her bow into its holder. Pulling out her spear, she waltzed into the middle of the camp. She did rather enjoy the look of shock the two remaining bandits wore, especially when they realized there was no backup coming.

The fight was over quickly and Aloy stood still for a second, the ache in her heart loud in the silence of her killing field.

Sighing, she made her way over to the first two captives. Carja tribesmen, grateful for her help and soon on their way back to their people. Most likely to bring back people to loot and set up shop here.

The third captive that she saw on her focus was further away, tucked into a little structure in the heart of the camp. It took moments to break the lock on the door and when it swung open, she sucked in a shocked gasp.

Nil.

“My radiant savior. I thought I could feel sweet death claiming its victims-” His hoarse voice was cut off as a coughing fit overtook him.

Jolted from her surprise, Aloy rushed inside the small room. Nil was propped up against the wall, bloodied and clutching his side. The lovely voice that teased her with poetic violence was rough and broken, as if he hadn’t drank any water in days.

“Nil,” she whispered, before cutting herself off. Turning on her focus, Aloy put off her questions. She studied his wound, judging the depth and extent of his injury with an objectivity she struggled to keep.

In her concern, she missed the way his eyes traced the planes of her face, as if memorizing the lines and curves of her, the particular shade of her eyes or the way the dying sun glinted off her fiery hair. As if he felt nothing but the need to drink in her every movement.

His lips twitched as she muttered to herself. “Care to share your thoughts, my lovely deathbringer?”

Anger flared to life in her as she jerked her bag around to search it for thread and needle, hintergold and bandages. “How could you be so _stupid,_ Nil?! What did you do, walk in and give them a free shot?”

Now that she knew he wasn’t dying, Aloy didn’t feel guilty as she scolded him for his carelessness. Despite her words, her hands were gentle. It had been… a long time since Nil had felt gentle hands on him.

It would have bothered him if they hadn’t been _her_ hands.

He didn’t flinch when she poked the needle into his skin. When she paused her admonishment to take a breath, he spoke.

“What’s your name, huntress?”

Aloy’s hands paused and her eyes darted to search his. Steel grey and sincere, she lost herself for a moment before remembering where they were and what he had asked.

“You haven’t needed my name all this time; why ask now?” She hadn’t meant it to be, but her voice was soft and the teasing was quiet.

“You’ve been the only thing I can think about since you refused my request.” Aloy’s breath caught and she was glad she hadn’t continued in her stitches, but Nil pressed forward. “I thought it was because I would never know which of the two of us death was fonder of, but- _ah!”_

Nil cried out as Aloy viciously began her stitching again. His cry became a laugh as she worked, but Aloy was fighting back hot tears.

After a moment, he continued, his voice softer than she had ever heard it. “But it wasn’t that. Where bandits and bloodshed once occupied my every thought, all I could think of was the huntress who had captivated me. The shining crimson of your hair and the shifting emerald of your eyes. This was my first attempt at killing bandits since we - parted. I had forgotten you weren’t heralding death beside me when I turned to catch your eye. That was when they won their pound of flesh from me.”

Silently, Aloy tied off her thread. Her brow was furrowed and she thought in the silent wake he had wrought. She had been the same.

Lifting her eyes to his, she said, “My name is Aloy.”

“Aloy,” he breathed and her heart stopped entirely. Reaching up, Nil skimmed his thumb across her cheekbone, trailing fire where he touched. “Would you care to be my partner again, Aloy?”


	2. More Than Partners

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr prompt: Excuse me. How dare that niloy just go and end right there. I need a part 2, please?
> 
> For my lovely @westofmoon and it picks up directly after chapter one.

“Are you going to challenge me to another death match if I say yes?”

Her tone was teasing but Nil could see the hurt flash in Aloy’s eyes. When he had challenged her, he hadn’t known to do anything else. Had never felt or thought the things he did about her so he thought that was the only way to move forward.

He didn’t even know if he could have won - or if he would have let himself. To see her fire burn out… Nil wasn’t sure he could let that happen, let alone be the person who did it.

When Aloy had turned down his offer, there had been real confusion and hurt and grief in her voice. It had taken him weeks to realize that she had not wanted to part either. Never before had Nil cursed his inability to relate to others more than when he wanted to know how she felt. Needed to know how she felt.

This was his second chance.

So he spoke from his heart, new and fragile though it may be. “And never again see the fire in your eyes as you fight? No, I think I would rather fight beside you.” Aloy’s green eyes burned into him as he hesitated. Done with her healing, she was still pressed close to him, barely any space between them and closer than he had ever gotten. He could still feel the pain thrumming through his body but it was a far less important ache than the one in his heart and his arms.

“Nil-”

“Anywhere, Aloy. Against the Shadow Carja or the machines you love or whatever foe you set yourself against. If you’ll have me, I’ll be your knife and your right hand.”

He meant every word. His hesitation from before, when she had told him to use his skills against the Shadow Carja, was gone. There was not a trace of doubt or regret in his mind. Nil would go anywhere, do anything, for this woman.

So he held her gaze, hoping that she could see his determination and his usefulness. He couldn’t hope for more than that, much as his traitorous heart yearned to.

Aloy leaned against the hand still cupping her face. Reaching up, she placed her own calloused hand on his and turned her head, brushing her lips against his skin and closing her eyes.

She was so used to being alone. Ever since Rost had died, she had been surrounded by people - but so, so alone. Nil had been the first, the _only,_ person to fill a void in herself she had never known she had. In his own way, Nil was the same kind of outcast she was. He was confusing and murderous and eloquent and- and she had missed him _terribly._

And here he was, offering to follow her and fight with her. Everyone else still viewed her with suspicion or awe and most kept their distance. Yet this man, who preferred to keep to himself and who avoided others whenever possible, wanted to be with her.

Opening her eyes, she met his crystalline gaze. Aloy was still learning how to read people but Nil was an open book for her, thrown open in this moment. So Aloy did what she did best and followed her instincts.

Surging forward, she pressed her lips to his. She watched his eyes fly wide with shock and she worried for a moment that she had misread, had gone too far- but then he was kissing her back. His lips were soft and sure, and Aloy felt her eyes flutter closed at the feeling of them burning against her.

Sliding his hand from her face to her neck, Nil tugged her closer. Partially on his lap now, Aloy braced herself against the wall behind him but that was all she could do before the kiss stole all of her focus.

They lost themselves in the touch of the other. Exiled and outcast, neither of them had found peace in the way they did now, with the whisper of lips and tongues and this moment.

When Aloy pulled back, still conscious of the wounds that covered him, Nil let out a low groan of protest.

A smile tugged at her lips when she said, “Not my knife. And not my right hand. My partner. And I as yours.”

The confusion that had clouded his face for a moment cleared and a smile spread across Nil’s face. It was sweeter and more genuine than any she had seen on him before and it took her breath away.

“I can live with that, huntress. Aloy.”

It pained her to do so, but Aloy slid off of him and stood. Leaning down, she helped him to his feet. Nil sucked in a breath as the pain spread through his body but she was there to lean on and support him as they made their way out of camp and towards whatever the future held for them. Together. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading, kudos, and especially commenting!
> 
> Feel free to visit me on tumblr @myfeyrelady!


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